Abstract

Modern Korean indigenous new religions were originally peripheral faiths—Buddhism, Seondo (immortal Daoist practice), Daoism, folk belief, shamanism, etc.—that had been fragmented and pushed to the margins in a traditional Confucian society. They emerged amid the external threat of Western imperialism and the internal contradictions of late Joseon Confucian society, at a time when the Confucian tradition of yangban aristocratic men dominated the social hierarchy as the official religion. This article examines the family resemblances of modern Korean indigenous new religions through four key aspects: (1) the modern transformation of the concept of the divine— a dynamic revitalization of transcendent reality and an enhancement of direct communication with it; (2) the faith-oriented transformation of religious practice—as Confucian self-cultivation centered on sincerity (seong 誠) and reverence (gyeong 敬) was inherited and then reappropriated into the practice of “sincerity, reverence, and faith” (seong-gyeong-sin 誠敬信), emphasizing “faith” (sin 信); (3) the divergence of practice into meditative disciplines versus magicalritual practices; and (4) the presentation and implementation of an alternative religious ideal of “Later Heaven Gaebyeok” as a utopian vision aimed at overthrowing the oppression of the ruling class and replacing the existing order.